The company building the national broadband network, NBN Co, plans to hire experts to remove asbestos from Telstra’s phone network, an expensive move expected to cut work for its main contractors.

The government-owned monopoly said it would hire specialists of its own, in addition to Telstra’s team of asbestos inspectors, and pledged a national audit to find out if adequate asbestos ­training is in place for its contractors.

“We’d obviously welcome it because these people are experts in the field,” said Allen Hicks, assistant national ­secretary of the Construction, Plumbing and Electrical Union, who was at the meeting.

“Not allowing the workers to do that and only getting suitably trained people to remediate or remove [asbestos] is the sensible thing to do.” Though Telstra is being paid to remove much of the asbestos lining in the underground pits and pipes that form its copper telephone network, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley told a parliamentary inquiry that those directly rolling out the network also encountered asbestos material during construction.

Some 10 to 20 per cent of Telstra’s eight million pits nationally are believed to include asbestos, but the company has admitted it is unsure exactly where the material has been used. Telstra has paid out as much as $30 million in compensation claims since 1999 to ex-workers exposed to asbestos during construction and maintenance of the network.

But the construction of the NBN has revived concerns of asbestos exposure to both workers and bystanders after allegations subcontractors were ­illegally dumping or inappropriately disposing of the material at work sites in most states.

An NBN Co spokesman did not return requests for comment at time of publication.

“Obviously our concerns aren’t who’s going to pay for it,” Mr Hicks said. “Our concerns are to make sure the area is appropriately cleaned up and safe for the workers to be in and the community to be in.”

Mr Quigley said that while NBN Co had completed safety and awareness training for 650 contractors and did 2900 compliance safety audits during construction, he couldn’t guarantee there would be no incidents.

“Our job is to minimise those,” he said last month.

He said asbestos in telecommunications pits and ducts was “by no means a new issue” and that both NBN Co and Telstra had set up processes for training workers in asbestos handling.

NBN Co says the asbestos issues will not affect the network’s roll out schedule, which has already been hit with several delays.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said there was little excuse for cutting corners on asbestos removal.

“The health and safety of the community and workers is always ­paramount when handling asbestos-containing material,” he said.